Saudi prince is $450.3 mn Da Vinci art buyer at auction

New York : The mystery buyer of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Salvator Mundi,” which fetched a record $450.3 million at an auction here last month, is a Saudi prince, a media report said.

The revelation that Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud was the purchaser were according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.The painting, a representation of Jesus Christ, was bid to the highest auction price ever achieved to date for a work of art. Christie’s auction house, which handled the sale, had said that it was the only known Da Vinci piece remaining in private hands.According to The New York Times revelation, Prince Bader is “little known from a remote branch of the royal family, with no history as a major art collector, and no publicly known source of great wealth”.

He is a friend and associate of the country’s 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. A spokeswoman for Christie’s said it did not comment on the identities of any buyer or seller without their permission. Prince Bader did not respond to a detailed request for comment.